Him
by debbiechan
Summary: Premanga. Urahara has an audience with Yoruichi while Soi Fong observes


Him

By debbiechan

Description: PG13. Yoruichi, Urahara, Soi Fong. Someone's jealous. No warnings.

F_or tea-roses who requested Urahara-Soi Fong interaction, manga-verse, no rating higher than R._

His spine seemed to bend the same way Yoruichi-sama's did. A comfortable-looking posture. An inappropriate one. Did other captains slouch and act this at ease among one another? Sitting with Yoruichi-sama at the kotatsu, the captain of the twefth division brought his hand too close to the princess when he reached for a teacup. Yoruichi-sama, amazingly, didn't seem to care. Soi Fong was starting to believe that Yoruichi-sama didn't care much for propriety at all.

Maybe that was because the princess was so noble as to be beyond all the restraints of society.

Of course, there was no excuse for Captain Urahara's rudeness. High rank or no, he was in the presence of royalty.

The two were not sitting close--in fact they sat on opposite ends of the same table--but the intimacy between the captain and princess was unmistakable. They mirrored one another. He picked up his cup and sipped when she did. She leaned forward and laughed when he did. He brushed back hair from his forehead and she put a stray lock of her own behind her ear.

They laughed altogether too much.

"That's a serious face, Little Bee," Yoruichi-sama said to Soi Fong. "Most people find Kisuke wildly entertaining. If you don't even smile, he will think you don't like him."

Soi Fong lowered her head. "Forgive me, Yoruichi-sama. I was not listening to the conversation. I didn't think that doing so was appropriate to my station."

The captain raised a finger and Soi Fong expected to be scolded.

"Ahhh, that's where you're wrong!" said Captain Urahara. His eyes were soft and kind and unusually blue. "It's your duty to listen! You guard the princess, right? Something I might say over the course of tea could be nefarious and foreboding. My words could suggest that I carry a weapon and intend to do vile things to Yoruichi-sama."

The peal of laughter from Yoruichi-sama was louder than any laugh Soi Fong had ever heard.

Was the captain a suitor? If so, he was being outrageously informal. Did he have business with the special corps? His demeanor didn't suggest that_. Friends? _That was it. _Friends_.

"Come, Little Bee," Yoruichi-sama held out her palm. "Join us. I won't tell."

"But--?"

"You're the princess' guard," said Captain Urahara. "You have to do as she commands."

Reluctantly, Soi Fog relaxed her guard stance but did not take her hand off her sword pommel as she walked to the table. She felt her shoulders slouch in imitation of the captain and the princess' but she right away straightened herself. She was not supposed to be accommodating to this group's attitude; she was merely going to serve as a guard at the kotatsu. She was merely going to sit next to the princess instead of watching over her from a polite distance.

"She's very talented," Yoruichi-sama said of Soi Fong, and Soi Fong's heart leapt. "She's devoted and intelligent and the best I've seen of her line. I'm so lucky to have her."

Both Yoruichi-sama and the captain were staring at her, and instead of feeling proud, Soi Fong felt humbled. Her face burned and she lowered her head. "Such words from Yoruichi-sama--"

"Oh stop." The princess leaned over and pinched Soi Fong's cheek. "She needs to loosen up a bit, Kisuke."

The captain smiled at the princess. "Sake?"

"I can send for some," Yoruichi-sama said.

Soi Fong held out her hand in protest. "No, please. No thank you."

More laughter. With her own hands, the princess poured Soi Fong tea, and Soi Fong marveled at the gesture. The wrongness. The attractiveness of it. Only Yoruichi-sama could make defying convention such a light and appealing trait.

The captain leaned back and put his hands on the floor behind him. The lounging position was appropriate for a friend. A _friend. _But there was something else here…. Soi Fong sensed the invitation before she was aware that the captain was making it.

"Yoru," said the captain. "I'm feeling a bit out of practice. My head's been in the laboratory so long that I've forgotten what it feels like to move my arms and legs."

"Ha. In that case, I could defeat you handily," said the princess. "I do nothing but train every day with my soldiers."

"It would be," said the captain with blue eyes glinting, "such an honor to be dropped to the ground by Yoruichi-sama's combat skills."

Soi Fong knew sexual innuendo when she heard it. This was going too far. She looked to her commander for what to do in response to such impertinence, but Yoruichi-sama's smiling eyes were locked with the captain's.

"What do you say, Yoru? An afternoon for sport? I'll tell Mayuri to take up slack at the department. He hates paperwork but he says he's working on inventing someone to do it for him."

"Ugh. That monster would do it too. What's his latest accouterment? Does it stick out of his head like a penis?"

"I didn't think the ears were phallic, Yoru. No more so than a sword. A handy place to store weapons and tools--although I would've built a hat instead of performing surgery on myself."

Soi Fong didn't want to listen to more. She'd never heard a man and a woman talk about such things so freely. Was she expected to contribute to the conversation? No, she was a servant. A guard. All she had to do was sit here and protect the princess.

And stare into a full cup of smoky green tea.

A visitor's stay with the princess had never lasted so long. Was it really happening? Yes, here she was--a subordinate seated next to a princess and a very odd man. Were there even stranger things in Soul Society that Soi Fong had not seen?

At some point, she lost the topic of conversation.

"Not even your influence with the council is going to affect the natural course of events," the captain was saying. "If Mayuri weren't so widely disliked, he'd have my position in research and technology by now."

"Pfffft!"

Soi Fong startled at the light spray on her arm. In making that funny sound Yoruichi-sama had actually spit across the table.

"Oh sorry, Little Bee." The princess touched Soi Fong's arm with a napkin.

This gesture made Soi Fong flinch more than the cheek pinch had. Yoruichi-sama acted even more negligent of class distinctions with the captain around. What was his influence on her? She seemed to be so fond of him. What was so special about him?

"Did I spit on you too, Kisuke?"

"Yes, but I don't mind that."

The two locked smiling eyes again.

It was as obvious as a blue sky.

He was more than her friend. He was her _lover._

The realization, for reasons unknown to Soi Fong, made her eyes sting. Was it that Yoruichi-sama having a life beyond the special corps and the palace made Soi Fong feel less important to her? Was it the idea that the princess would be attracted to someone like _him_, someone loose-limbed and iconoclastic and….

Oh, he was handsome. The two seemed to fit together somehow. His lightness, her darkness. Their long torsos and elegant ways of being totally inelegant at the table.

With all her might, Soi Fong beat down her feelings and blinked back the one tear in her eye. But it was too late: the captain had seen her.

"Yoru," he said while giving Soi Fong a gentle smile. "We're embarrassing her."

"She can handle it." Yoruichi-sama said. "My pupils need to learn things other than hand-to-hand combat."

Soi Fong felt young. Too naïve. She wanted to change herself--to learn more about the rough, impolite world in order to win Yoruichi-sama's approval.

"We're out of here," the princess said. "Little Bee, stay and don't tell anyone I'm gone if you can help it. Say…." She laughed. A beautiful laugh, so free and spontaneous. "Say the princess is _indisposed._"

Everyone rose, and Soi Fong bowed, and the captain and the princess headed for the door.

Yoruichi-sama didn't look back, but Captain Urahara did.

The sympathy in his eyes was unsettling. Soi Fong would remember that look for over one hundred years.

W_hy him?_

W_hy for him?_

And the door closed on Soi Fong, never to open. Many times afterwards, Yoruichi-sama would stand at the threshold with the captain, but Soi Fong was always instructed to stay.

And because she was a loyal and devout servant, she stayed.

E_nd_


End file.
